Community Vision hosted its eighth annual Spring Event at the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley on Thursday, May 19. The Campus is located at the Ashby BART station and was the perfect location for this year’s topic of discussion, transit-oriented development (TOD). Mary A. Rogier, Community Vision’s president, presided over the evening’s activities.
Against the background of sunset and shadows that arced through the dramatic windows, the evening’s panelists discussed the challenges and the future of TOD in California. The panelists included Claudia Cappio, executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency, Dmitri Belser, president of the Ed Roberts Campus and executive director of the Center for Accessible Technology, and Oz Erickson, chairman of The Emerald Fund, a real estate developer in the Bay Area. The panel was facilitated by Lydia Tan, treasurer of Community Vision’s board of directors and executive vice president with Related California.
Following the panel discussion, we honored four outstanding agencies with our Community Impact Award. The awardees included Affordable Housing Associates, for building affordable housing using local workers and businesses, and Girls, Inc of Alameda County, for teaching girls how to advocate for themselves and their communities. Dechert, LLP received an award for providing Community Vision hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services without adding costs to the nonprofit projects we finance, and Union Bank received an award for supporting the work of community-based nonprofits through generous grant support from its foundation.
After the awards the audience enjoyed folkloric dances by two dancers from Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center. Both girls are long-time students at Los Cenzontles. The night ended with food and refreshments for the 120 guests mingling against the background music by harpist Vicki Ruggerti. It was a wonderful evening enjoyed by all!
